in the email today...a long winding one... >Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 16:47:34 -0400 >From: al aronowitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Organization: THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST >Subject: HOW TO GET OFF MY MAILING LIST > >DEAR FRIEND, > >I’m forced to apologize for the blank messages you recently received >from my computer, sometimes twice and maybe even three times. There >were long lists of alphabetized eaddresses on them. > >Actually, this is really more of an explanation than an apology. Those >blank messages were the result of a virus emailed to me like a package >bomb in the same manner that Theodore Kaczynski, the notorious >Unabomber, spread destruction and sometimes death from his cowardly >anonymity. You’ve got to admit that the minds of the Unabomber and >whoever mails a computer virus are similarly afflicted. In fact, such >creeps also are cursed with the same kind of juvenile devotion to >negativity evinced by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two sickies who >massacred their classmates at Colorado’s Colombine High. To swagger >through hell like Wild West gunslingers, is that what the two of them >wanted? To live only long enough to enjoy the psychopathic pride they >sought in being mass murderers? Like Adolf Hitler, all Harris and >Klebold achieved was the privilege of being able to blow their own >brains out. > >Virus villains are careful not to get blood on their hands but they are >murderers nonetheless. They shoot like deadly snipers from the cover of >anonymity. Like Harris and Klebold , they have nothing but contempt for >the world. Like Harris and Klebold, they don’t care that the world has >an even greater contempt for them. > >Certainly, contempt is what I have for the slimebrain who sent me that >virus. That was many weeks ago, all wasted in trying to restore what I >could from the burnt shell of my hard drive. At first, I was angry >enough to kill. But I’m really not that bloodthirsty. It had never >before occurred to me that I might possess dark powers, but I once put a >curse on someone who ended up hanging himself in the most gruesome way. >The story I got is that he used a wire coat hanger for a noose. > >I regret to admit I greeted that news with a smirk. But years of >misgivings, have long since wiped that smirk off my face. As I said, >I’m really not that bloodthirsty. Besides, I believe in Karma. For >every yin there’s a yang. What goes around comes around. In other >words, the snake who sent me that venom has already doomed himself (or >herself). In one way or another, he (or she) will--- at least >figuratively---end up having to swallow the very same poison that he (or >she) fed to me. > >Malice is in itself negative energy. And if there’s one thing life has >taught me, it’s that negative energy is always counterproductive. To >send out bad vibes is like spitting in the wind. The spit blows right >back into your face. Negative energy will always boomerang back at you. > >Look at all the negative energy boomeranging back at me, starting back >in 1972, when I was blacklisted from print journalism for no good >reason. I was writing the very successful POP SCENE column in the New >York Post at the time but obviously, I musta done something wrong. > >But what did I do to deserve this virus? My views are sometimes very >unorthodox and so I know there are a lot of people who disagree with >things I write. But I suspect the virus maybe came from among those in >my email address book who didn’t want to be on my mailing list. I’m >still pretty much computer illiterate, see, and when they asked to be >removed from my mailing list, I couldn’t find their listings to remove. >I asked them if they were sure the eaddress was the same to which I had >sent the unwanted email. I asked them to be patient and they got mad. >In response, I was foolish enough to ask if maybe they were just some >crank putting me on. They didn’t like that. > >Of course, the fact that I was computer illiterate enough---foolhardy is >a better word---not to know that I should never open attachments without >being sure of what they contain shows what a patsy I still am. Me, I’m >so innocent, I didn’t even know enough to keep updating my antivirus >program. So I get this email from an alleged “Dr. Miller” and open the >attachment, just like I customarily open all attachments and my >antivirus program tells me I have a virus and the program can’t do >anything about it because I haven’t updated my virus definitions. > >Like Harris and Klebold swaggering through hell, these virus villains >swagger through cyberspace. They’re the gunslingers of the digital >age, looking for computers to murder at the slightest excuse. But >really, they’re no better than vandals overturning gravestones in >cemeteries. They’re nothing but bullies, see. They know more about >computers than you do, so they hold you in contempt. They know you >can’t outdraw them. And they come heavily armed. The bullets they >shoot are digital H-Bombs. > >The virus sure destroyed my computer. Living on a monthly Social >Security check, I’m already deep in debt but I had to borrow deeper to >buy a new machine. I’m an old dog and it’s hard for me to learn new >tricks. It took me hours and hours to save all my stuff on the diseased >computer. Still, there were a few casualties. One was THE BLACKLISTED >JOURNALIST’s promise of another column added monthly. I was already so >far behind because of prior negative energy that the virus forced me to >suspend publication altogether. Column 50 was dated November 1, 1999. >There hasn’t been another column since. > >Another casualty was my updated address book. As a result, many of you >who received confirmations that you already had been removed from it are >now back on my mailing list. But keep reading and you’ll learn how to >get off my mailing list once and for all. > >I founded THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST in 1995 when, although totally >computer illiterate, I realized that the Internet was a way of getting >my writing before a reading public. In other words, the Internet was my >path to an end run around the blacklist that had kept me out of print >since 1972. All any writer ever wants is readers. THE BLACKLISTED >JOURNALIST has gotten more than 80,000 hits since 1995 and although >that’s certainly not much compared to more popular websites, it aint >chopped liver, either. I’ve gotten enough fan email to know I’ve got at >least a cult following. > >As THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST, you see, I claim a certain notoriety. >For instance, I’m the man who introduced Allen Ginsberg to Bob Dylan, >Bob Dylan to the Beatles and the Beatles to marijuana. As such I’ve got >a lot of stories to tell about the cultural upheaval that exploded in >the era from the Beats to the Beatles, from On the Road to the Rock >Revolution. A lot of inside stories because I was obviously on the >inside. Ginsberg, Dylan and the Beatles weren’t the only cultural icons >I used to hang out with. Anything of any cultural significance that was >happening in the counterculture of those days, I was there, right in the >middle of it. > >Interested in the Beats? Kerouac? Ginsberg? Cassady? Dylan? The >Beatles? The Grateful Dead? Miles Davis? Billie Holiday? Mick >Jagger? Jimi Hendrix? Phil Spector? Those are only a few of the >figures you’ll find on my website. As I said, I hung out with them >all. The stories I tell bring you right there with me. I’m not a poet >but THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST prints poetry, too. You’ll find >interesting contributions from other writers from all over the world. >Writers like the revolutionary black activist Amiri Baraka, whom I >consider one of America’s greatest living poets, and from his diametric >opposite, Manuel Menéndez, an anti-Castro Cuban exile, who hates blacks >and says his politics are to the right of Genghis Kahn. But I admire >his story-telling! In fact, I’ll print anything any writer sends me >just so long as it passes my test: it’s gotta be fun to read or have a >damn good reason why it aint. The Internet has given a new power to the >printed word. It is the aim of THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST to be worthy >of that power. > >I hope you’ll give my index page ( http://www,bigmagic.com/pages/blackj >) a peek before you angrily demand to get off my mailing list. There >have been others who asked to get off. Then they took a look and >changed their minds. > >You have gotten on my mailing list for any one of several reasons. > >1. You sent me an email. >2. Someone who knows you gave me your email address and asked me to put >you in my address book. He (or she) thought you’d be interested in my >website. >3. You were one of the recipients listed on an email sent to me from a >website not unlike my own, causing me to be hopeful that you might be >interested in some of the subjects covered by my website or you might be >interested in just plain good reading. > >Oh, I admit I cheated a little and copped some eaddresses from emails >sent me by computer neophytes who, as was once the case with me, didn’t >know enough to send blind carbon copies. I know it’s not computer >etiquette to cop eaddresses like that, but the virus villains have >destroyed computer etiquette. Besides, I’m trying to turn everybody I >can onto my website. I’ve got no money to advertise or to hire a press >agent or to otherwise promote THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST. The search >engines largely ignore me but word of mouth keeps spreading. The point >is I’m not asking for anything. Like I said, I’m offering you the >stories on my website for free! > >I certainly didn’t mean to pollute your screen or break the back of your >email inbox with more junk. At least, I hope my emails aren’t as boring >as some of the spam that fills my own inbox. I find it no trouble at >all to click on DELETE. And I certainly didn’t mean to offend, insult >or overburden you with the necessity of dealing with this message. >Normally, I send out monthly announcements of the contents of each new >issue of THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST. I also send out announcements of >my occasional readings. > >As a computer neophyte, I, too, started out sending emails with long >lists of addressees on them. I now send to only one addressee and the >other recipients, each emailed as a “bcc.” Because I have accumulated a >long mailing list, I send out my emails a portion at a time. So, I need >that one eaddressee on each email I send to help me locate your listing >when you want to be removed. > >I’m not some hustler trying to tell you how to make a million dollars >and I’m not a spammer who gives you a phony return email address. If >you want to be removed from my address book, kindly print “REMOVE” in >the subject line above, click on “reply” and then click on “send.” It >is essential that I have a complete copy of this email I’ve sent you, >including the lone addressee at the top. As I said that will enable me >to find you in my address book. Afterwards, you will receive an email >confirming that you have been removed from my mailing list. But have >patience, please. So far, THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST is just a one-man >operation and, although I hope not, there might be a rush of naysayers >among you. > >Best, > >Al Aronowitz > > >-- >Al Aronowitz >THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST >http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj
